ID-based control unit-key fob pairing

ABSTRACT

A key fob includes a transceiver to send and receive signals, a memory to store a key fob identification (KFID), and a processor coupled to said transceiver and memory. The processor is to execute, along with a pairing device, an identification (ID) authenticated key agreement protocol based on the KFID to authenticate a pairing device and to generate a common secret encryption key known only by the processor and the pairing device. The Processor receives a control unit identification (CUID) encrypted by the pairing device with the common secret encryption key, execute along with the control unit associated with the CUID an ID authenticated key agreement protocol based on the CUID to authenticate the control unit, generates a second common secret encryption key known only by the processor and the control unit, and receives an operation key encrypted by the control unit with the second common secret encryption key.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a Divisional of and claims priority to U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/942,381 filed Jul. 15, 2013, now U.S.Pat. No. 9,166,958, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/672,463, filed on Jul. 17, 2012 and U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 61/672,474, filed on Jul. 17, 2012; which arehereby incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Wireless key fobs and their respective vehicles may use encryptedoperational keys to authenticate communications that occur between thetwo. For the key fob and the vehicle to be able to communicate, theymust be paired at some point in either the manufacturing or the salesprocess. The pairing of wireless key fobs and their respective vehiclesconventionally requires the vehicle manufacturer to deliver to thevarious vehicle dealers a secret key associated with each key fob wherethe secret key is a cryptographic key. A key fob's secret key may bethen be used to associate the key fob with a vehicle, or pair the keyfob and the vehicle. Multiple key fobs are typically paired with eachvehicle. This step of delivering to the vehicle dealers the secret keymay and the fact that each of these key fobs must store the secret key,however, open a means for theft of the secret key leading tounauthorized key fobs and potential theft.

SUMMARY

The problems noted above are solved in large part by a key fob-controlunit pairing device that includes a transceiver to transmit and receivesignals, a memory to store a key fob identification (KFID) and a controlunit identification (CUID), and a processor coupled to said transceiverand memory. The processor is to authenticate the key fob usingidentification (ID) authenticated key agreement protocol based on theKFID, and to transmit an encrypted CUID to the key fob.

The solution to the problem may also involve a key fob that includes atransceiver to receive and send signals, a memory to store a key fobidentification (KFID), and a processor coupled to said transceiver andmemory. The processor is to execute, along with a pairing device,identification (ID) authenticated key agreement protocol based on theKFID to authenticate the pairing device and to generate a common secretencryption key known only by the processor and the pairing device. Theprocessor is also to receive, from the pairing device, a control unitidentification (CUID) encrypted by the pairing device with the commonsecret encryption key, is to execute, along with the control unitassociated with the CUID, an (ID) authenticated key agreement protocolbased on the CUID to authenticate the control unit and to generate asecond common secret encryption key known only by the processor and thecontrol unit, and is to receive, from the control unit, an operation keyencrypted by the control unit with the second common secret encryptionkey.

And yet another solution may be a method for pairing a key fob with avehicle that includes executing, by a pairing device and a key fob, an(ID) authenticated key agreement protocol based on the KFID toauthenticate one another and to generate an encryption key DHKey1,encrypting, by the pairing device, a control unit identification (CUID)with DHKey1, transmitting, by the pairing device, the encrypted CUID toa key fob, executing, by the key fob and a control unit, an (ID)authenticated key agreement protocol based on the CUID to authenticateone another and to generate an encryption key DHKey2, encrypting, by thecontrol unit, an operation key with DHKey2, and transmitting, by thecontrol unit, the encrypted operation key to the key fob.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention,reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an example conditioning process for identification (ID)-basedauthentication pairing approach in accordance with various examplesdiscussed herein;

FIG. 2 is an example initial pairing process of a key fob and a controlunit using ID-based authentication and in accordance with variousexamples discussed herein;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example pairing device in accordancewith various examples discussed herein;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example key fob in accordance withvarious examples discussed herein;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example control unit in accordance withvarious examples discussed herein;

FIG. 6 shows an example operation of a paired key fob and control unitafter pairing in accordance with various examples as discussed herein;

FIG. 7 shows an example of an operational key change by a CU inaccordance with various examples as discussed herein;

FIG. 8 is an example flow diagram of a method for the ID-basedauthentication in accordance with various examples discussed herein.

NOTATION AND NOMENCLATURE

Certain terms are used throughout the following description and claimsto refer to particular system components. As one skilled in the art willappreciate, companies may refer to a component by different names. Thisdocument does not intend to distinguish between components that differin name but not function. In the following discussion and in the claims,the terms “including” and “comprising” are used in an open-endedfashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean “including, but notlimited to . . . . ” Also, the term “couple” or “couples” is intended tomean either an indirect or direct wired or wireless connection. Thus, ifa first device couples to a second device, that connection may bethrough a direct wired or wireless connection, or through an indirectwired or wireless connection via other devices and connections.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following discussion is directed to various embodiments of theinvention. Although one or more of these embodiments may be preferred,the embodiments disclosed should not be interpreted, or otherwise used,as limiting the scope of the disclosure, including the claims. Inaddition, one skilled in the art will understand that the followingdescription has broad application, and the discussion of any embodimentis meant only to be exemplary of that embodiment, and not intended tointimate that the scope of the disclosure, including the claims, islimited to that embodiment.

The pairing of key fobs and vehicles (e.g., automobiles, motorcycles,boats, scooters, etc.) may entail the transport and use of secureinformation to ensure imposter key fobs are not paired with vehicles,which may lead to theft. The full conventional process may be keptsecret by vehicle manufacturers to ensure the security of theirvehicles. This process, however, may require the manufacturer to developan expensive and dedicated IT system to generate secret keys and tomaintain their security. Yet, when vehicles are delivered todealerships, the secret keys are passed along so that multiple key fobsmay be paired at the final destination. The transportation of the secretkeys from manufacturer to dealer may present an opportunity for thesecret keys to be stolen leading to rogue and imposter key fobs.

In addition to vehicles, the disclosed methods may also be used to paira key fob with any type of control unit that allows for wirelessconnectivity and control. For instance, the disclosed techniques anddevices may be part of a garage door system, hotel entrance system, or aremote entry for a home. As such, the scope of this disclosure is notlimited to control units of vehicles. The use of vehicles and thepairing of key fobs with one or all the control units of a vehicle ismainly for descriptive purposes.

Disclosed herein are devices and methods for pairing key fobs withvehicles that may avoid the transport of the secret information to thedealerships and that may reduce the IT requirements of the vehiclemanufacturers. One method to effectuate the pairing of a key fob and acontrol unit may involve identification (ID) authenticated key agreementprotocol with the ID serving as a password for authentication purposes.With the ID-based authentication approach, the key fob and the controlunit may both have their own unique associated ID. The IDs may then beused in the key agreement protocol to generate common secret encryptionkeys that may be used to pass information between the devices so the keyfob and the control unit are paired. A pairing device may first generatea secret key with a key fob using the key fob's ID. The secret key maythen be used by the pairing device for encrypting the ID of a controlunit. The encrypted control unit ID may then be transmitted to the keyfob so the key fob knows what control unit with which to pair. The keyfob and the control unit may then use the control unit ID to generate asecond secret key only known to them. The second secret key may then beused by the control unit to encrypt an operational key, which will betransmitted to the key fob to complete the pairing process.

The ID authenticated key agreement protocol with the ID serving as thepassword for authentication may be based on elliptical curvecryptography (ECC), such as elliptical curve Diffie-Hellman keyagreement protocols.

A possible advantage of the ID-based technique is that it may notrequire a costly public key infrastructure and a certificate authority.

FIG. 1 is an example conditioning process 100 for identification(ID)-based authentication pairing approach in accordance with variousexamples discussed herein. The conditioning process 100 may prime thekey fobs and the CUs so to facilitate pairing of the two. Theconditioning process may involve a vehicle dealer 112, a vehiclemanufacturer 110, a key fob 106 and a CU 104. Alternatively, the vehicledealer 112's part in the conditioning process 100 may occur when the keyfob and CU are paired and does not necessarily need to be performed asshown in FIG. 1. The conditioning process 100 may involve inserting aunique ID into the CU 104 (CUID) and the key fob 106 (KFID). The uniqueID for the CU 104 may be kept secret and may be inserted into the CU 104by the vehicle manufacturer 110 or a CU 104 supplier to the vehiclemanufacturer 110. The unique IDs for both the key fobs and the CUs maybe an eight character hexadecimal word, for example. Alternatively, theID may be based on a system that allows for a large number ofpermutations to avoid redundancy within the IDs used. The IDs may beselected such that an imposter/adversary is unable to predict which keyfob 106 (and its associated KFID) the dealer 112 may use in the nextpairing. An eight character hexadecimal ID would generate around 4billion possibilities.

The vehicle manufacturer 110 may send the CUIDs of associated CU 104s tothe vehicle dealership 112 receiving the vehicles that include those CU104s. The transfer of the CUIDs to the dealer 112 should be performedsuch that the CUIDs are kept secret. Intercepted CUIDs may allowimposter key fobs to be generated that may be paired to CUs without theaid of the dealer 112, possibly leading to theft.

The key fobs 106 may have their unique ID (KFID), which does not have tobe kept secret and is readable from the key fob 106, inserted by the keyfob manufacturer 102, a key fob assembler, or the vehicle manufacturer110.

FIG. 2 is an example initial pairing process 200 of a key fob and acontrol unit using ID-based authentication and in accordance withvarious examples discussed herein. The initial pairing 200 may involvethe pairing device 202 (at the dealer 112), the key fob 106, and the CU104. Similar to the certificate-based authentication approach discussedabove, the pairing device 202 may facilitate the pairing of the key fob106 and the CU 104 by securely transferring identification informationto one of the components to use to connect to the other component.

The pairing process 200 may begin at step 1 a with the dealer 112selecting one key fob 106 out of the many in inventory. Upon selectionand through the pairing process, the KFID of the key fob 106 should bekept secret. The dealer 112 may then, step 1 b, secretly enter the KFIDof the associated key fob 106 and the CUID of a CU 104 into the pairingdevice 202.

The pairing device 202 may then establish communication with the key fob106, step 2 a. Using the KFID, the pairing device and the key fob 106may then execute an ID authenticated key agreement protocol with the IDserving as a password for authentication purposes. The ID authenticatedkey agreement protocol may perform two functions: authenticating the twocomponents to each other and generating a common secret key they twocomponents may use to transmit encrypted messages between one another.Thus, when the pairing device 202 and the key fob perform the IDauthenticated key agreement protocol using the KFID, they willauthenticate one another and they will generate a common secret key,DHKey1, to use for secure communications with one another. At step 2 b,the pairing device 202 may encrypt the CUID using the DHKey1 andtransmit the encrypted CUID to the key fob 106.

The key fob 106 may be able to decrypt the message to obtain the CUID,which may then be used to establish communication with the CU 104associated with the received CUID. At step 3 a, the key fob 106 and theCU 104 may then execute an ID-based encryption authentication using theCUID, similar to above, to both authenticate one another and to generatea common secret key, DHKey2. The CU 104 may then use the DHKey2 toencrypt an OpKey to transmit to the key fob 106 at step 3 b.Additionally or alternatively, the key fob 106 may erase the CUID afterinitial pairing with the CU 104.

FIGS. 3, 4, and 5 show block diagrams of an example pairing device 202,key fob 106, and CU 104, respectively, in accordance with variousexamples discussed herein. The three devices/components—pairing device,key fob, and CU—may all comprise a processor (302, 402, 502), a memory(304, 404, 504), and a transceiver (306, 406, 506). The processors ofthe three devices/components may be used to perform the authenticationcomputations and the common secret key generation computationsassociated with the certificate-based authentication pairing and theID-based authentication pairing. The processors may be a standard CPU, amicrocontroller, a low-power digital signal processor, etc. and may becapable of performing complex calculations in a short time.

The memories of the three devices may be used to store the public andprivate key pairs and the certificates of authenticity associated withtheir respective device for the certificate-based authenticationpairing. Alternatively or additionally, the memories of the threedevices may be used to store the IDs of their own or the other devices.For example, in the ID-based authentication pairing, the pairing device202 may store both the KFID and the CUID before initiating a paringsequence. The KFID and CUID for those two associated devices may bestored in the memory 304 of the pairing device 202. The memories may bea non-volatile storage device such as flash memory or an EEPROM.

The transceivers for the three devices may be wired (not shown),wireless or capable of both. The transceivers may be used by the devicesto communicate the IDs, public keys, and/or certificates of authenticityduring the condition steps and the initial pairing steps for eitherauthentication approach. The key fobs allowing for remote entry andcontrol of vehicles may use a wireless technology such as Bluetooth, LF,or UHF for those transmissions but may also be able to communicate withthe pairing device and/or the CUs via a wire during the initial pairingprocess.

FIG. 6 shows an example normal operation of a paired key fob and CU inaccordance with various examples as discussed herein. The normaloperation depicted in FIG. 9 shows the interaction between a key fob 106and a CU 104 post initial pairing by the process 200 (ID-based). The keyfob and CU, when communicating with one another upon a user'sinteraction with the key fob for example, may first authenticate oneanother by executing an OpKey authenticated challenge-response protocolbased on AES-128, for example. Operation of the CU by the key fob mayonly be allowed when the response is valid. An invalid response maysignify a rogue key fob and the CU may not perform commands sent from aninvalid key fob.

FIG. 7 shows an example of an OpKey change by a CU in accordance withvarious examples as discussed herein. The CU 104 may change the OpKeywhen a key fob 206 is misplaced or is stolen. By changing the OpKey, theCU may prevent the missing or stolen key fob 206 from accessing the CU104. The CU 104 may be initiated by an external signal that a new OpKeyis desired. The external signal may come from the owner of the remainingkey fob(s) 106 by performing a preset sequence with the key fob andvehicle or the external signal may come from the pairing device 202 ofthe dealer 112. Upon receiving the external signal, the CU 104 mayencrypt a new OpKey using the old OpKey and then transmit the encryptednew OpKey to the remaining key fob(s) 106. After receiving the newOpKey, the old OpKey may be erased by all the Cu 202, 204 and theremaining key fobs 106. Normal operation between the devices may thencontinue without worry that the rogue key fob may interact with the CU.

FIG. 8 is an example flow diagram of a method 800 for the ID-basedauthentication in accordance with various examples discussed herein. Themethod 800 may be one implementation of the initial pairing process 200described in regards to FIG. 5. The method 800 begins at step 802 withthe pairing device 202 and the key fob 106 executing a KFIDauthenticated key agreement protocol to authenticate one another and togenerate an encryption key DHKey1. The step 924 continues the method 800with the pairing device 202 encrypting the CUID of the CU 104 with theDHKey1 before the pairing device, at step 806, continues withtransmitting the encrypted CUID to the key fob 106.

The method 800 continues at step 808 with the key fob 106 and the CU 104executing a CUID authenticated key agreement protocol to authenticateone another and to generate an encryption key DHKey2. The method 800then ends with steps 810 and 812 with the CU 104 encrypting an OpKeywith the DHKey2 and transmitting the encrypted OpKey to the key fob 106.After the OpKey has been shared with the key fob 106, the CU 104 and thekey fob 106 may be considered paired.

The above discussion is meant to be illustrative of the principles andvarious embodiments of the present invention. Numerous variations andmodifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once theabove disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the followingclaims be interpreted to embrace all such variations and modifications.

What is claimed is:
 1. A key fob, comprising: a transceiver to receiveand send signals; a memory to store a key fob identification (KFID); anda processor coupled to said transceiver and memory to: execute, alongwith a pairing device, an identification (ID) authenticated keyagreement protocol based on the KFID to authenticate a pairing deviceand to generate a common secret encryption key known only by theprocessor and the pairing device; receive, from the pairing device, acontrol unit identification (CUID) encrypted by the pairing device withthe common secret encryption key; execute along with the control unitassociated with the CUID an ID authenticated key agreement protocolbased on the CUID to authenticate the control unit and to generate asecond common secret encryption key known only by the processor and thecontrol unit; and receive, from the control unit, an operation keyencrypted by the control unit with the second common secret encryptionkey.
 2. The key fob of claim 1, wherein ID authenticated key agreementprotocol is based on elliptic curve cryptography.
 3. The key fob ofclaim 1, wherein the KFID and the CUID authenticated key agreementprotocol is based on Diffie-Hellman key agreement protocols.
 4. The keyfob of claim 1, wherein the processor is to decrypt the operation keywith the second common secret encryption key.
 5. The key fob of claim 1,wherein the KFID and the CUID are eight character hexadecimal words. 6.The key fob of claim 1, wherein the encrypted operation key is receivedwirelessly.
 7. The key fob of claim 1, wherein processor decrypts theencrypted CUID using the common secret encryption key.
 8. The key fob ofclaim 1, wherein the processor decrypts the operation key using thesecond common secret encryption key.